Issue - meetings

Following on from Cabinet allocating a budget of £525,000 in their July meeting, for asset improvement works at Clacton Leisure Centre, to request approval of the business case in order for the project to proceed.

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)    approves the business case for asset improvement works to Clacton Leisure Centre; and

(b)  agrees to proceed with the project set out in the ‘Clacton Leisure Refurbishment’ report previously reported to Cabinet in July 2019, with the Head of Sport and Leisure be delegated to undertake the necessary procurement in accordance with the Council’s procurement procedure rules.

Further to Minute 22 of the meeting of the Cabinet held on 19 July 2019, Members gave consideration to a joint report of the Corporate Finance and Governance Portfolio Holder and the Leisure and Tourism Portfolio Holder (A.2) which requested approval of the business case in order for the proposed asset improvement works (with an allocated budget of £525,000) at Clacton Leisure Centre to proceed.

It was reported that those asset improvement works, with associated energy efficient adaptions would assist the Council in its objective to achieve high quality facilities throughout the District, together with improving customer access to services. Enhancing sports facilities would also compliment work which was currently taking place on the Sport England Local Pilots project, which had recently attracted £10m of investment spread between Tendring, Colchester and Basildon Councils.

Cabinet was informed that improving the quality of the leisure centre environment would in turn improve the customer experience at Clacton Leisure Centre. The refurbishment would provide a facility which users would expect from a modern leisure centre and which would contribute to the Council’s 10 year strategy by driving down the subsidy through both increasing membership numbers and casual users, along with reducing expenditure on maintenance issues associated with the deterioration of the areas subject to the proposed refurbishment.

The business case was set out in the Project Management Scoping Document, which was before Members as Appendix A to the Portfolio Holders’ report. The key issues were that:

(1)       the proposed works were the first phase of a wider Sports Facilities Strategy which would be considered by Cabinet in November 2019.  This asset improvement scheme was considered to the first priority of a number of projects due to be considered.  Good quality changing facilities were the foundations of providing a high quality service in leisure provision and improvements to this basic function were considered essential prior to progressing in other areas; 

(2)       the refurbishment would improve customer service and perception to both retain and attract new customers;

(3)       due to savings on maintenance costs and increased income from activities, the return on investment would be 8% despite this being an asset improvement scheme; and

(4)       there would also be a reduction in the carbon footprint of the facility through energy efficient adaptions added through the refurbishment.

Having considered the information provided in the report and the appendix attached thereto:-

It was moved by Councillor Porter, seconded by Councillor G V Guglielmi and:-

RESOLVED that Cabinet –

(a)   approves the business case for asset improvement works to Clacton Leisure Centre; and

(b) agrees to proceed with the project set out in the ‘Clacton Leisure Refurbishment’ report previously reported to Cabinet in July 2019, with the Head of Sport and Leisure be delegated to undertake the necessary procurement in accordance with the Council’s procurement procedure rules.